CCPR/C/116/D/2231/2012
1.
The author of the communication is Azimjan Askarov, a national of Kyrgyzstan
born in 1951. He claims that the State party has violated his rights under article 2; article 7,
read separately and in conjunction with article 2 (3); article 9 (1); article 10(1); article 14
(1), (2), (3) (b) and (e) and (5); article 19; and article 26 of the Covenant. The Optional
Protocol entered into force for the State party on 7 January 1995. The author is represented
by counsel.
The facts as submitted by the author
2.1
The author, an ethnic Uzbek, is a human rights defender in Kyrgyzstan. For more
than 10 years he has documented human rights violations by the police and prison
authorities in his home town, Bazar-Korgon, and other parts of the Zhalal-Abad region. On
15 June 2010, he was detained in the aftermath of ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan.
He was accused of numerous crimes, including complicity in the murder of a police officer
on the morning of 13 June 2010, and was detained at the same police station where the
police officer in question had worked.
2.2
The author claims that during his first four days of detention at the police station
following his apprehension on 15 June 2010 he was repeatedly beaten; the police
humiliated him and, referring to his human rights work, made such statements as “because
of the articles criticizing us, we will get even with you”, “we will make you die slowly”,
“now we have the opportunity and the time to punish you” and “now it is your turn to serve
us”. He was denied access to a lawyer and was interrogated at least 11 times as the police
attempted to coerce him into testifying against leaders of the Uzbek community in
Kyrgyzstan.
2.3
The author submits that at one point, he was repeatedly hit on the head with a pistol
and forced to clean up his own blood. The police also threatened to have his wife and
daughter raped in front of him. His detention was not registered for nearly 24 hours, even
though article 95 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Kyrgyzstan requires registration within
three hours of detention. On the third day of interrogation, the local prosecutor in charge of
the investigation, Ms. Turazhanova, criticized the police for the fact that they still had not
obtained the information that she said she needed.
2.4
The author submits that on 17 June 2010, the prosecutor filed criminal charges
against him, alleging that he had instigated ethnic hatred, incited disorder and incited the
crowd to attack the police officer who died as a result of the attack. The court ordered the
author’s pretrial detention at a hearing at which both the judge and prosecutor declared that
his guilt was already proven. The author was provided a State-appointed lawyer, Mr.
Myrzakulov, but the lawyer did not defend the author’s interests; to the contrary, he
accused the author of having been disrespectful to the police and the prosecutor in the past
by writing articles criticizing their work. Ultimately, seven other co-defendants from BazarKorgon were also detained and charged with participating in the disorder, the death of the
police officer, or both.
2.5
The author was detained by the police in the deceased officer’s police station in
Bazar-Korgon for two months. He had no access to a lawyer until a colleague visited him a
week after his detention and discovered that he was being tortured. Even when a prominent
human rights lawyer from Bishkek, N. Toktakunov, joined the defence team, the police and
the prosecutor refused to allow him to meet the author in private and withheld information
necessary to prepare for his defence. On several occasions,1 relatives of the dead police
1
2
The author submits that his lawyer was first attacked on 23 June 2010, when the relatives of the
deceased police officer threatened him with violence if he continued to defend Mr. Askarov.